The most certain way to give your child a good start in life is by breast-feeding. Breast-feeding reduces a child’s risk of developing allergies and gastro-intestinal problems. This is true even though mother’s milk has been shown to contain some environmental toxins.
The quality of mother’s milk is totally dependent on the mother’s diet, both during the pregnancy and in the following nursing period. The mother should make sure to follow a healthy diet that fully covers the needs for essential nutrition’s for both her and her child. In most cases the child will be able to follow an adult diet when it is approximately 1 year old. One should keep in mind, though, that certain nutrition’s that are rich in protein are likely to contribute to the development of food allergy. These include dairy products, eggs, and soy products. One should avoid feeding the child fried meals, since the immature gastro-intestinal tract of the child is not developed for digesting heavy meals.
At this age the child can benefit from a daily supplement of vitamins and minerals, but care should be taken so that the child does not choke. Vitamin tablets can also be broken down into quarters. Make sure that the broken edges are smooth so that the tablet is easy to swallow. An agreeable children's chewing lozenge is a good solution and one that bears no risk of overdosing, even if the child should ingest a large amount of vitamins in an unattended moment.
The child should be at least one and a half years old before attempting to swallow normal vitamin tablets.
In spite of daily administrations of children’s vitamins, situations that require further supplements from specific vitamin and mineral groups may still arise. This usually concerns vitamin C and -D, iron, calcium, magnesium and/or zinc.
Children that are used to having a daily vitamin supplement are usually more open to the idea of taking other medication as well. Otherwise, one often has to be very inventive to get the child to accept taking prescribed medicine. Success can often be achieved by crushing pills to powder and applying it to the child's meals or beverage.
The difference between children’s and adult vitamin supplements primarily has to do with doses. There are some general guidelines for administrating vitamins and minerals to children:
Age: Dose:
- Newborn - 6 months: mothers milk only
- 6 - 12 months: 1/6 of adult dose
- 1 - 3 years: 1/3 of adult dose
- 3 - 6 years: 1/2 of adult dose
- 6 - 9 years: 2/3 of adult dose
- 9 - 12 years: 3/4 of adult dose
- More than 12 years: adult dose
